By Jordan J. Michael

ALBANY –– The hope of another shot at the state title was slashed in a matter of seconds on Saturday and it felt like something had died.

No, it wasn’t a funeral. It was a very heavy loss for the Lady Dutch lacrosse team in the Class A regional final. A win would have sent Guilderland to the state semifinals for the third consecutive year.

Instead, Lakeland-Panas moved on after a quick catch-and-shoot goal by Megan Bozek in sudden-death overtime. The scoreboard at the University at Albany read 11 to 10 and the Lady Dutch players collapsed to the turf while the Rebels stormed the field in excitement.

Guilderland and Lakeland were tied six different times from the start of the second half and kept trading leads throughout. It turned into an all-out frenzy with the simultaneous change of directions.

“Everything was happening so unbelievably fast,” said Kristen Cagino, who scored in the second overtime for the Dutch, tying the game at 10. “There was so much emotion and we got crushed,” she said. “It wasn’t our day.”

It was the fourth consecutive meeting between the two teams in regional play. Guilderland won, 16 to 6, in 2009 and 13 to 4 in 2008. Lakeland won the first meeting, 12 to 7, in 2007, and, coincidentally, the game was played on the same field at UAlbany.

Lady Dutch goalie Amanda Santandrea, who had 11 stellar saves on Saturday, told The Enterprise that Head Coach Gary Chatnik always compared the 2010 team to the one from 2007. Santandrea was on the 2007 team with Cagino and Jenna Crupi.

“I can’t believe that this ended the way it started,” Santandrea said, clearly upset by the coincidence. “I thought we could pull this out because we wanted it so badly.”

Santandrea was ready and willing to go back out on the field for another rematch. “I’m ready to play them again right now,” she said just after the defeat. “It wasn’t supposed to end like this.”

Guilderland was robbed of its storybook ending for the second straight season. The team lost to Farmingdale in the state championship last year by one goal in the final nine seconds of overtime.

“We still needed to get some things in order,” said Chatnik. “You can’t assume things. You have to go out and finish. It wasn’t meant to be even though we wanted to move on. We’ll learn from this.”

Goals by Shelby Iapoce and Kelly Camardo gave the Lady Dutch a 3-to-0 lead with about 10 minutes to go in the first half. The Rebels finally broke through Guilderland’s excellent defense with a goal by Casandra Honovich with 7:07 remaining.

Erin Mossop broke through a scrum in front of the net to give the Dutch a three-goal lead, but Honovich scored again off a feed from Anna Jeszeck to close the gap. Guilderland had a 4-to-2 lead at halftime.

“The defense on both sides was intense from the get-go,” said Lakeland Head Coach Sharon Sarsen. “I felt like we had a better chance to beat them this year. We believed.”

Jeszeck and Kelsey Bub scored for the Rebels early in the second half to tie the game at 4 to 4. After that, all hell broke loose on the field. It had the pace of a video game.

Neither side had much of an edge, but turnovers and lost draws by Guilderland fueled Lakeland’s fire.

“We can’t throw the ball away like that and expect to win,” said Chatnik. “We were our own worst enemy.”

“We didn’t play our best game,” Cagino said on Wednesday. “But, we showed serious heart because we kept fighting back.”

The Lady Dutch might feel empty, but an 18-2 record and four straight Class A titles is nothing to dimiss. The team will be looking for number five in 2011.

“No one is happy that we lost, but it’s not all bad,” Chatnik said. “In several ways, we overachieved.”